According to this Barcelona article a neighborhood leader has refused the medal that Xavier Trias has presented to her, in her efforts to protest cuts. The neighborhood leader’s name is Maria Ruiz Martos and has rejected the Barcelona Medal of Honor, which the Mayor has given her in the protest of cuts in health and education.
Maria is known as La Maruja, Nou Barris, and the leader rejected the award just before it was presented by the mayor of the Catalan capital. Martos explains, “Personally I cannot accept a government that is cutting through what I’ve fought and fought.” Martos’ words were greeted with a generous applause from those attending the medal ceremony, and the video is having a great impact on the Internet.
Ruis Martos was born in Granada in 1936 and came to Barcelona when shew as very young. This is where she joined the neighborhood movement during the last years of Franco. She has been a member of the association of the Nou Barris neighbors since its inception in 1970, and in 1976 participated in an enclosure of family members of Iberian Motor Company, including her husband, when they were to be fired. After 28 days in a church of Sant Andreu, 300, families, among whom were many women and children, were violently evicted.
This article is interesting to me because it shows a very political side of Barcelona. There has, and I feel there always will be, political unrest in a large city such as Barcelona. Its humbling and reassuring to know that there are still people in the world who are fighting for what they believe in, and most importantly, in a non-violent way.
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